Magic was an objective force.
Different kinds of magic manifested in different ways depending on the environment. The more extreme the environment, the more limited magic became.
On Runeterra, all forms of Elemental Magic could be used normally.
But in a demiplane like the Shadow Realm, magic aligned with it would be strengthened, while opposing magic would be weakened.
And in the celestial realm, nearly all Elemental Magic was heavily suppressed, while celestial spells became immensely powerful.
In places like Ixtal, the presence of elemental gradient barriers made casting Elemental Magic smoother than elsewhere, while Arcane Magic and runic spells were weakened.
There were countless other examples.
Of course, for Transcendents, the limits imposed by the environment were fairly minor. Even in the Shadow Realm, Lux had to work a little harder to cast spells, but her own magic was still enough to shine brilliantly.
But there were places where the environment's influence was so powerful that even Transcendents struggled to cast spells.
Such places were called null-magic zones.
Within them, even spells cast by Transcendents with abundant magic would quickly dissipate and go out of control.
During the Shuriman Empire, null-magic zones were a vital laboratory environment. In the critical areas of many core magical laboratories, circular null fields were deliberately set up to reduce interference from the outside environment.
Of course, these artificial null-magic zones were fragile. If someone insisted on trying to cast a spell inside one, the field would often be destroyed outright. For that reason, casting spells in a null-magic zone was one of the most serious offenses at Shurima University, and anyone who broke this rule would be expelled immediately.
Besides artificial null-magic zones, there were also some that were "natural."
The Void, for example, was a naturally occurring null-magic zone. There, the different